Training on the Job
by Laume
Summary: Harry PotterATeam crossover. Harry and co, frustrated with the lack of training from the adults, take matters into their own hands. With the help of an old Dark Arts book and a Time Turner, they try to get to the Founder's age, but take a wrong turn.
1. Chapter 1

"What are you doing?"

"Reading."

"I can see that, Harry. But what are you reading?"

"One of Sirius's old Dark Arts books."

"HARRY! They are…"

"Helpful."

"But…"

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think I deserve a normal childhood?"

"Of course, Harry."

"Do you know it's only a little over a year before my childhood is over?"

"True."

"Do you think I've had a happy childhood?"

"No – not really. I hope you consider the times the three of us had as happy, though."

"Certainly. But. The Dursleys. Voldemort."

"That doesn't qualify as a happy childhood, I agree."

"So I think we can safely conclude I have not had a happy childhood, and there's no way I can have one."

"Point taken."

"Yet I have a Dark Lord I'm supposed to defeat."

"I wish you hadn't."

"Nevertheless, I do. Dumbledore…"

"PROFESSOR Dumbledore…"

"Dumbledore feels I need no training to do so. He just wants me to be happy and dance up to Voldemort one day, stick a wand up his nose and defeat him."

"That's a gross exaggeration, Harry."

"Perhaps a little, but not much, mind you. So I decided I need help training."

"I'm sure there are several Order members…"

"The Order is hardly effective. Mad – Eye is the best of the lot, and he's more paranoid than a Russian triple spy during the cold war."

"It's not paranoia when they're really out to kill you."

"I'm not paranoid."

"Well…"

"Hermione…"

"Oh alright, you're not. That still doesn't explain why you need a book on Summoning rituals."

"I'm glad you asked. Let me explain…"

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"..so I think that the combining of the reversed Summoning Ritual with a Time Turner should allow us to go back to, say, the time of the Founders. If anyone can help us train, it would be them. Harry, are you listening to me?"

"I am, Hermione. I am contemplating the wisdom of you and Ron accompanying me."

"Such big words. Of course we are coming with you."

"It'll be dangerous."

"Oh. And getting the Philosopher's Stone wasn't? Going after a full-grown Basilisk at age twelve was an outing to the playground? A hundred Dementors and a werewolf on our backs were a piece of cake? Fighting the Death Eaters at the Ministry was a holiday trip?"

"Al right, no need to get sarcastic. I get enough of that from Snape. So Ron will come too?"

"Of course, I already asked him. I told him we were going to do something dangerous and unprecedented to help you train, and he insisted he had to come. As long as we did the research."

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"Blimey, mate, you and 'Mione really put some thought into this, didn't you?"

The ritual area, the Chamber of Secrets, looked impeccable and impressive. The three of the stood on the points of a large triangle on the floor.

"Do you really think we won't get in trouble for this?"

"If all goes well, no one will ever notice, Ron. We could stay away for years and years and still come back at this exact moment. That's what the Time Turner part of the ritual is for."

"Oh. Alright. Ritual away, then."

Three teenagers landed with a loud THUD in a surprisingly modern-looking city.

"Er…I think we did something wrong," Harry muttered, rubbing his sore head. Sore, but not Voldemort-sore. The pain from his scar was substantially lessened.

"I'd say so," Ron scrambled to his feet, "I don't think we're in England anymore."

Hermione groaned. "We're in Kansas," she pointed at a sign that said "Welcome to Topeka."

"Oh no." Harry looked around defeated. "Now what are we going to do?"

Hermione picked up a newspaper, gasped, and handed it to Ron. "Bloody hell," the redhead swore, "we've doubled ourselves. We're six years old!"

Harry sat down by the side of the road, his head in his hands. "We're screwed."

"Maybe not entirely," Hermione studied the paper, "look."

There was a tiny ad near the bottom of the page. No number or address was listed, just one sentence.

**If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team**


	2. Chapter 2

Harry sighed. "Great. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, without money, probably in a Muggle area, in the wrong era, and with no one to help us except a freaky organisation called A Team that apparently advertises in papers without leaving name and address. How much worse could this possibly GET?"

Hermione looked apologetic. "Well…"

Two heads whipped up, eyes daring her to add more to their troubles. She gulped, but dared.

"It's not impossible to contact someone – Dumbledore, for example."

The boys looked relieved.

"But we can't," Hermione continued.

"Why NOT?" Ron nearly yelled, "Call him, Floo my parents. It's a great opportunity. We'll get Sirius out of jail, Scabbers into it, Harry away from the Dursleys…"

Harry's eyes lit up, but then he shook his head.

"No, Hermione is right. We can't do all that. We'd create a truly awful paradox. We can't let anyone back home know. We're lucky, in a way, that we stranded so far away."

"You're just going to leave things as they are?" Ron asked in disbelief, "are you mad? Don't you care about Sirius, mate?"

Harry jumped up, his fists clenched. "Don't you ever. EVER. Say that again!" he hissed.

"Calm down, Harry. Ron, sit." Hermione nearly kicked Ron's leg out from under him to get him to obey.

"Don't you think I'd LOVE to do that?" Harry sneered, still angry at his best friend, "don't you think everything in me wants to grab Scabbers and bring him to the Ministry? But we can't do that, we can't do anything that affects the future back home."

"I don't understand…"

Hermione sighed. "Ron, time travel is immensely complex. You have no idea how many Arithmancy charts I had to draw up in my third year just to go to class. Here's the problem: by going back in time, we create a paradox. Especially when we change certain events. Let me try to explain. Suppose we went back to England and do exactly what you say. We have Peter arrested, Sirius released, Harry goes to live with him. What would that do to us?"

Ron shrugged. "Nothing much, I reckon. Harry will be happier, though."

"We wouldn't meet for the first time on the train, Ron. We might not even end up being friends. I wouldn't be ignorant of the Wizarding World, and I would know a lot more about Voldemort. We might change things for the better, but it would all be for nothing."

Harry raised his head. "Don't you see, Ron? I wouldn't end up doing this timetravel thing. That means we would never go back to the past to change all those things. Which would mean they would all happen, landing us here again. We'd get stuck in an endless time loop with no hope of getting out."

"That's why time travel is illegal, and restricted to time turners for a few hours at most," Hermione added, "what we have done is unprecedented."

"Then why do it in the first place?" Ron yelled, "what the hell were you thinking?"

"It was all or nothing!" Harry screamed back, "We HAD to do something. Dumbledore wasn't training me, Voldemort could strike any moment, and he would have won! This might endanger the world, but staying would've meant there wouldn't BE a world!"

"And there's still hope," Hermione added, "we landed far away. Originally we planned to go to the Founders for training, and make sure our names would never be recorded in history."

Ron held his head and moaned. "This is too much. I'll just accept for now you guys are right."

"Being right doesn't get us anywhere, though," Harry muttered, "we are stranded without food or Dollars, and equipment only suitable for a prolonged stay in the Middle Ages."

Hermione nodded. "I'm guessing that this A-Team might be magical. Possibly like our Aurors."

"Or they are a bunch of lunatics, or it is a joke. I know next to nothing about American Wizards; have you read about them, Hermione?"

The witch nodded. "A little."

Ron got out his wand. "If we just do a little magic, they'll come after us."

"No they won't," Hermione said, "This is the United States, Ron. Muggle children are allowed to drive at 16 and Apparition is legal at 14. People are allowed to carry weapons. They never had underage magic laws. It was incredibly impractical for early Wizard settlers to forbid their children from doing magic, so they didn't bother. The only way would be to do magic in front of a Muggle, but I don't think you want to spend time in jail. We planned to train, after all."

"Let's head into town first," Harry suggested, "I doubt we'll meet many wizards hanging around here."

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"It's useless," Ron complained hours later, "we haven't gotten any further, my feet are sore and no sign of this A-Team, whatever it is."

Harry felt increasingly guilty. Had he been hasty in dragging his friends into the ritual? Shouldn't he have insisted more, forced the Headmaster in to training him? Surely someone could have helped him back home, and now they were stuck here, for Merlin knows how long.

"Couldn't we ask someone at the paper?" he suggested tiredly, "don't people have to pay for ads? They must have a name."

"Of course!" Hermione nearly hugged him, "Brilliant, Harry!"

Harry looked around. In front of a MacDonalds sat a man, appearing to be in his fifties, eating a hamburger.

"Excuse me, sir," he asked, holding out the paper with a hand trembling from fatigue and nerves, "do you know where we might find this paper's office?"

"Sure, kid. It's not far. Couple of blocks down that road."

"Thank you," the three teens set off again.

When they arrived at the paper, however, it was closed.

"Bugger," Ron muttered, rubbing his growling stomach, "what now?"

"I don't know. Find a place to sleep," Hermione sat down, "I don't know. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm sorry Harry, I'm sorry I got the calculations wrong."

Harry sat next to her. "No, 'Mione, it's my fault. I shouldn't have dragged you along. This whole stupid idea of mine is my fault. I can't ever do anything right."

"Well, well, what do we have here," a voice suddenly said, "newcomers? Haven't ever seen you lot around. But here, it's common courtesy to pay an entrance fee, as it were…"

Harry warily stood up. The four large man in front of him reminded him too much of Dudley and his gang for comfort.

"We don't have any money," he said, "leave us alone."

"Ooooohh," the biggest man, the leader apparently, smirked at his friends, "the little one's got guts."

He pushed Harry back with one hand. "Not so tough, eh? Hand over your stuff, or we'll have to teach you a lesson before we take it!"

Ron and Harry stood protectively in front of Hermione, their hands itching to grab their wands and teach those punks a lesson.

"You know, BA," they suddenly heard, "four big men against a couple of kids. Doesn't seem fair to me, does it?"

"Sure doesn't, Hannibal," a gruff voice said, "I don't like them picking on kids."

"Perhaps we should ah…even the odds a little, then?" a young, cultivated voice suggested.

"Moo's all for it, Col'nel. See how eager she is? GO FOR THE EYES, MOO!"

Before any of the teens knew what was happening, their assailants were being expertly butt-kicked and flew through the air, only to scramble up from the pavement where they landed and run, screaming for their mothers.

"T-Thanks, sir," Harry stammered out.

"'S Okay, kid. Could see you lot needed a hand back when you asked me for directions."

Now they looked up, and noticed that it was the same guy from the MacDonalds.

The oldest man nodded at the paper Hermione was still clutching. "Saw that add you apparently wanted to inquire after. Looking for the A-Team, eh? Don't you know they're fugitives? Criminals?"

Ron shrugged, Hermione was too upset to respond, and Harry warily looked up.

"I've known someone else who'd been labelled a criminal. He ended up being innocent. I'm not so quick to judge anymore."

Before any of the four adults could respond, Ron's stomach growled again.

"Hungry?" the man said with a smirk. "Come along, kids, we'll buy you dinner, and then you can tell us all about why you are desperate enough to look to notorious jailbreakers for help."

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After a meal of hamburgers and fries, they all felt much better.

"Now, on to business. You don't look like the typical runaways."

"We didn't run away," Harry responded, "we just got lost."

"Going where?" the young blond man asked.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a brief glance. "We were supposed to meet our new tutors, but they never showed up," Harry finally ventured.

"And who might those be? Perhaps we can take you there, or bring you back home. England, isn't it? Thought so, by the accent."

"NO!" Harry nearly yelped, "We can't…can't go back home. And we can't go to our tutors. It's …complicated."

The four adults glanced at each other with raised eyebrows.

"What were you supposed to be tutored in?" the blonde man asked again.

"Self-defence, battle tactics, strategy, that sort of thing," Hermione looked at her nails.

"We stranded here, and saw that ad. We didn't know what else to do. It did say 'if you have a problem and no one else can help', and that's exactly what's wrong. We have a problem, and there's no one to help."

She sniffed, and quickly wiped a stray tear from her cheek.

"Hannibal…" the huge dark man said.

"We don't know anything about them. They're not speaking the truth," the old man responded with a stern look at the teens.

"They're not telling us everything, but would you if you were in their position? I wouldn't have," the blonde man pleaded, "it wouldn't be the first time, Hannibal…"

The two stared hard at each other for a while. Harry supposed something important had taken place, because the man apparently named 'Hannibal' nodded.

"Well kids, I suppose you got lucky. You just hired yourselves the A-Team," he smiled widely, with a cigar in one corner of his mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N I'm an RPG fan. A lemon drop to the reviewers who recognize what pc game is keeping me occupied at the moment.**

The teens stared at the man. "You- You're the…"

"A-Team. Yes, kids, we are. I'm Colonel John Smith, but you may call me Hannibal. The big guy over there is BA Baracus, you can call him BA. That's lieutenant Templeton Peck, but we call him Face mostly. And finally…"

"I can do my own introduction, Col'nel. Hello kids, I am HOOOOOWLIN' Mad Murdock, and this here is my miniature giant space mouse Moo. Say hello to the kiddies, Moo!"

"Put that thing away, Foo'!" BA swatted at Murdock, "mouse in a restaurant, it's filthy."

"Now there, Big Guy, it's not Foo, it's Moo. MOOOOOOOO, like in the noise a cow makes?"

A glare from BA made the somewhat unique man shut up. Strangely enough, Murdock's behaviour comforted the teens.

"You're just like Luna," Ron grinned.

"Luna?" Face turned to Murdock with a very evil smirk on his face that reminded Ron eerily of his twin brothers.

"Oh, no, Faceman, no way," Murdock protested, "no calling me 'LLLLunah'. It IS a good name for my new pal, however…"

"NO! No new pals! Your crazy pals don't get into my van anymore! I swear…"

"Come on, kids," Hannibal grinned through the bickering, "let's go to our temporary place of residence, and we'll discuss what we can do for you."

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The 'temporary place of residence' turned out to be a couple of luxurious double suits.

Hannibal sat down and motioned for the kids to do the same. The rest of the A Team scattered about the room.

"Now, I realize that you kids may not want to tell us everything about yourselves. We have a few secrets of our own to keep. But if we're going to help you out, I want to be sure you are at least honest. So, what you tell us must at least be true. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes, sir," the teens replied after a quick glance at each other.

"Good. Then about this tutor stuff."

"That's true," Harry said quickly, "we never lied about that. It was just really complicated."

"Fine, I'll take your word for it." Lighting another cigar, Hannibal continued, "doesn't explain why kids like yourself need that kind of training."

Harry gulped. These men were not as easily deceived as he initially thought. Behind the ridiculous banter they apparently were a lot sharper than they seemed.

"Why don't you just start at the beginning," Face suggested.

A silent discussion, and it was settled. Harry cleared his throat.

"Well…you see…it started when I was a little kid, and a madman killed my parents. I...my mum managed to hurt him real bad in her last moments, to protect me. Somehow everyone was convinced I did it, and that I had to be the one to finish him off. He went into hiding for ten years, while I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle. They hated my parents and me, they never told me anything about this until the boarding school my parents had attended, sent me an invitation to study there. And suddenly I found out I was some kind of hero. Now that my parent's murderer is back, everyone is expecting me to kill him, but no one wanted to train me. So we, Ron, Hermione and I, started to look for our own teachers. We thought we'd found them, but, well, there was a mess up. We're stranded here now, we can't go back or V…Riddle will kill us before we are ready to face him."

"Riddle…Riddle…Riddle me this, Riddle me that. I riddle, you riddle, we riddle…"

"Shut up, Foo'! Them kids need help. Where's that madman, we'll go teach him to pick on kids, won't we, Hannibal?"

"I don't know, BA," Hannibal sucked his cigar thoughtfully, "sounds to me like there's more to it than just a killer. Why wouldn't the British law enforcement simply have picked him up? Why rely on a child to get him? Seems like not everyone knows of this killer."

Harry looked at Face, the one he instinctively felt was most on their side. "Not everyone knows," he said, "my parents were part of a small community, as was their killer. They have their own Au- Law enforcement. I was sent to live outside that community and didn't come back until I went to school. Hermione didn't grow up there at all. Ron did, though."

Ron nodded. "Harry's really hero worshipped there. No one looks anywhere else to solve problems. Half the time they expect Harry to be perfect, and the rest of the time they write lies about him. They're a bit crazy."

Hannibal looked doubtful. BA and Murdock seemed preoccupied with the question whether or not mice could be from space. Face looked pleadingly at Hannibal.

"I know it doesn't all add up, Hannibal, but remember another kid that told you half truths or outright lies? You gave him a chance, didn't you?"

"I made it very clear to that kid that lying to me was a bad idea."

Face sighed.

Hannibal studied his lieutenant and the three teens thoughtfully for a long time.

"Alright then. Decker's off our trail for a bit anyway. Make no mistake - someday I expect you lot to tell me the truth."

Harry met the older man's gaze unflinchingly. "I cannot promise that we'll ever be able to, but if we are, you'll be the first."

"Good enough for now. I guess we'll have to get you set up somewhere, you'll want to get some sleep. Tomorrow we drive out to a more remote place and we'll start your training."

"We – we have some gold to pay you," Hermione offered, "it just needs melting. Or hammering."

"Who's talking about money?" Hannibal clearly considered the conversation over, "that's not important. You'll be cursing me before the week is out."

Face nodded brightly. "Yes, you will."

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"HARRY! I want to go HOME! This is crazy!"

The boys were running in the rain, their sweatpants muddy. They had been running for miles and still Hannibal wouldn't let them off.

"Up at 5 am! All that running. How will this help us defeat You Know Who?"

Harry shrugged, clenched his teeth and ran on, determined.

Meanwhile, Hermione was having different problems.

"Why couldn't I go with Ron and Harry? I need to train too! Why won't you let me join their lessons?"

Her eyes flashed.

"Cuz you're a girl," BA said, "Girls don't fight."

"Girls don't have a choice where I come from," Hermione snapped, "Riddle really doesn't become a gallant gentleman whenever he sees a woman. You can't protect me! You can only protect me by teaching me to fight!"

"Well, it's unfair," Face pointed out, "none of us would be able to hit you or hurt you in any other way, so it would be pointless."

"Fine!" Hermione huffed, "then let me find someplace where women train together if you are so scared of one girl!"

"Scared? Young lady…"

"Ron and I both still have the scars from the last time Harry and Riddle met. We were there, we fought Riddle's cronies. Do you think they cared they were fighting a girl? They are murderers! Not gentlemen like you!"

Hannibal broke out in a wide smile, enraging the witch in front of him even more.

"Alright, you made your point. We'll find you a place to train."

"But Hannibal…"

"BA – what would you say if our enemies suddenly threw trained women at us? Would you fight back?"

"No way," BA spat, "I don't fight no women."

"Exactly," Hannibal nodded contently, "now, let's see if the kids are on their way back and we can start on weapon use."

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It turned out that Harry and Ron, while not having problems duelling Hermione with magic, weren't overly eager to train with her, so Hermione trained on her own and attended self defence classes for women. Secretly they met up from time to time to practice magic – they did have to keep up their skill, after all.

If the A Team suspected anything, they didn't mention it, and after a few weeks came the day when Hannibal declared they had mastered the basics.

"From now on, you'll accompany us," he said, "the best way to learn is training on the job."


	4. Chapter 4

"Rise and shine, kids! We're going to church."

Groans emerged from the boy's bedroom.

"What is church, and why are we going there?" Ron whined, as his blankets were stolen from him. Luckily Hannibal was too busy torturing him to let his comment sink in.

Harry yawned and sat up. He quietly began to dress while Hannibal teased Ron out of bed.

"Something a little more formal than jeans and a shirt is called for," Face said from the other room, "come here, Harry, see if this fits you."

Some on-the-spot tailoring later, Harry was dressed in black slacks and a button-up shirt. Ron had by now been tossed out of bed by BA and given similar clothes to wear.

Hermione emerged from her room wearing a skirt and blouse. Her eyes were daring the boys to comment. Harry wisely elbowed Ron in his side when the redhead opened his mouth.

"Breakfast, and then we're off. We'll brief you on the situation in the van."

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"So, Hannibal, why are we going to church, and one miles and miles away, no less?" Hermione asked while the van sped along the empty road.

"We got a note from a church member. Seems this church is having trouble with some major bullies. They set up a few programs for the poor families in that town – helping kids with homework, running a daycare so single mums can take a job. A lotta kids go to college because of them. Some of the richer townsfolk don't appreciate that."

"Why can't their please-men take care of it?" Ron asked, "it has to be illegal to bother programs like that."

"Well, it is, but for some reason the local authorities won't do anything," Face explained, "I know the priest who runs the church, and I owe him a lot. He's a good man and doesn't deserve that kind of trouble."

"Who does," Hermione shrugged, "but being a priest, he can't fight back as effectively."

"That's right," BA groused, "and any sucka messin' with them kids gets my fist in their face. Hard enough for those folks to get by."

"True. Well, we'll attend the service and linger afterwards to see what the situation is."

Ron sent a look of panic at Hermione. "Mi," he whispered, "I don't know what that is! How am I supposed to act?"

"It's okay, Ron," Hermione whispered back, "there are plenty of Muggles who don't know how to act in church. As long as you at least pretend to know you've heard of the concept 'church'. Just go with the flow."

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Harry followed the service with great interest. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had not been particularly fond of 'church people' as they had called it. Of course, his aunt and uncle weren't particularly fond of just about anything that wasn't Dudley or rich customers.

He did notice that the guy in charge recognized Face. Face, sitting next to him, was obviously pleased to see the man.

After the service, the group of seven lingered long enough for all churchgoers to disappear. When the church was empty, Face smiled brightly. The older man returned his smile and rushed towards the group with open arms. Catching Face in them, he hugged him warmly before holding him at arm's length.

"Well, well, if it isn't young Templeton. How are you, child? Oh, but you are a child no longer – all grown up now. Who are your friends?"

Face pointed at Hannibal.

"This is Colonel John Smith, or Hannibal, Father. I met him in Nam, and he saved my life more times than I could count."

"Father," Hannibal inclined his head, "good to finally meet you. Face here has told us a lot about you."

"Ah, did he now?" the priest's eyes twinkled like Dumbledore's did when confronted with a lemon drop.

"Mi, why do they all call him 'father'? He's not…I mean…" Ron whispered frantically.

He also whispered quite loudly. The priest burst in to loud guffaws as BA glared at them.

"No, Ron, he is not their biological father," Hermione explained, embarrassed, "honestly, don't you EVER read a book?"

"That's alright, young lady. There's no shame in ignorance. Why, even the Lord started out as an innocent baby."

"A Lord?" Ron paled, "Like You Know Who?"

Hermione smacked him soundly.

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Introductions completed, and Ron somewhat educated in the workings of the church, Father Martin invited them all to share lunch with him at his home.

"Tell me, Templeton, how are you? I've kept up with your exploits, and I must say I was worried."

Face lowered his eyes. "We did escape from prison, Father. If – if you prefer us to go…"

"No, no, dear boy," Father Martin smiled, "I didn't think my little Templeton could have changed so much over the years that the tales of the A Team's crimes could be true. Am I right?"

BA managed a smile, Murdock grinned broadly and Hannibal's eyes shone with respect. Face sighed in relief.

"No, Father. But we are on the wanted criminals list and associating with us could get you into trouble."

The twinkling eyes clouded over. "I have trouble enough, I doubt I would lose any sleep over associating with innocent wanted criminals."

Hannibal spoke up. "That's why we are here, Father. We heard about your troubles, and wanted to see if we could help."

"I really appreciate that," the priest said gratefully, "but I doubt there's much that can be done. Leroy and Wesley have the Sheriff in their pocket, and anyone who's tried to protest has been bribed or silenced by that gang. I know Sheriff Nader wishes there was something he could do, he's been kind to our kids before, but he needs those men to keep his job. He has five children of his own to support. And you have your own young ones to consider," he motioned at the teens.

"These are our students," Murdock bounced, "we're teaching them the tricks of the trait, so to speak. The rules of the game. The…"

"Apart from that," Hannibal cut the pilot short, "it'll be easy for them to mix with your teens and not be noticed much. When do these men bother you most?"

"On Wednesdays and Friday nights, the most, when they've been drinking. They beat up Danny last Friday so badly he's in hospital. But Wesley is part of the city council, he's been doing his best to make life difficult for us there. Holding permits and the like."

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"I don't like this," Ron whined, "it's like lining up for Malfoy and his gang. Why didn't we just go back?"

"We CAN'T go back, Ron," Hermione sighed, "stop complaining. Though I'm a bit worried about falling behind in magic, Harry. The physical training and tactics will help, but in the end, you can't punch V-Voldemort out of existence. At some point, we'll have to find someone to teach us magic."

Harry shrugged. "I know, Mi, but for now this is a part of our training that has been awfully neglected. We didn't have the stamina for a long duel, never mind a full-fledged battle. Not to alarm you or anything, but I think trouble is heading our way."

Indeed, a group of thugs, led by a man in a dress suit, came over to the teens that were sitting on the front porch of the church, working on their homework.

"Haven't you learned anything?" the man said in disdain, "haven't we told you to get back to the gutter where you belong?"

He reminded the three magical teens so much of Malfoy and his goons that they barely refrained from cursing the men into green slugs.

"You – you lot are new here, aren't you?" the man noticed them now, "just what we needed – more trash. I think," his face brightened, "I think another lesson is required. Yes."

He motioned to his men and they closed in on the teens. Harry, Hermione and Ron immediately stood in front of the group, ready to fight as they had been taught over the past weeks.

A swing to Harry's head was easily deflected. Hermione placed her knee expertly in the groin of the man who tried to grab her. He let go in pain. Ron managed to break a nose before he was overpowered by two others. Harry and Hermione fought back to back against four men.

They were about to be overrun and beaten up when the A Team arrived, warned by one of the teens who had managed to sneak away while the Trio kept the attackers occupied.

BA immediately bodily picked up one of the man holding Ron and threw him onto the man in suit, who had only been looking on so far. Ron wrestled free of the other and after a few well-placed blows, that one too abandoned his quest to subdue the redhead.

Face, Hannibal and Murdock each took a man threatening Harry and Hermione. The fourth made the mistake of thinking Hermione was a timid little girl. A broken nose, a black eye and a punch in the gut later, he was cursing feminism and wishing for the good old days when women stayed home looking after the kids.

Harry and Face had fun punching the biggest of the lot back and forth between them until he was out.

After tossing the bunch of them on the street, Hannibal hauled up the leader.

"You listen to me, pal," he growled, "You leave these kids, the church, and Father Martin alone. You can tell THAT to your bosses."

"Hassling with kids," BA spat in disgust, "all them kids want is go to school and get a decent job. They work hard at it. Don't deserve this kind of trouble from you."

"Exactly. Now, BA, Face, Murdock – please escort these gentlemen off the premises."

"They'll come back," the teens said concerned, "they always do. They'll get us like they got Danny."

"Then we fight back," Harry said, "you can't let people like that decide your future for you! It's your life, you have the right to make it the best life you can get."

"Harry's right," Hermione's eyes glowed with determination, "education is important for the rest of your life. It decides whether or not you can get a job that will feed your family. Don't let them take that from you."

Seeing the teens exchange hesitant glances, and then slow nods, Hannibal smiled. "We'll get rid of them for you, don't worry."

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Later, Hannibal happened upon a trio of depressed teenagers.

"What's with you lot?" he asked.

"We lost," Ron said gloomily, "they nearly got us."

"Listen, kids, it was eight grown men against you three. You held your own until we got there. That was not bad for a first time. You got those kids thinking about their future, and that's a good thing. Overall, I'm pleased with how you are doing so far. Don't expect miracles right away, it takes hard work and a lot of sweat to get really good."

BA and Face, who walked in behind Hannibal, agreed.

"You did fine," BA said, "you're just skinny kids, and them grown men."

"True, BA. And they didn't expect Hermione here to be such trouble. I'm glad we got to see that, but I think I'll have nightmares about it, Mi," Face made a show of wincing.

"What are we going to do now?" Harry asked, "we can't keep fighting them. They need to be gone permanently."

"Yes, and we will make sure of that, don't worry kid," Hannibal's eyes glittered eerily as he lit another of his infernal cigars.


	5. Chapter 5

The A-Team worked hard over the next few days, helping out the Father. The trio joined up with the teens and made some remarkable progress.

"I dunno Han'bal," BA said as they took a break, observing their young trainees being taught basketball. "There's summat strange about 'em…real strange."

"I agree, Muchacho," Murdock entered the conversation, "Moo says they's good kids but juuuust a little bit fishy."

"Look, I think you worry too much," Face adopted his most relaxed 'nothing's wrong' stand, "they haven't given us any trouble and they learn fast."

"Oh, no one says they're trouble, Face," Hannibal took a thoughtful pull on his cigar, "but BA and Murdock are right. There's something off about those kids, and I think, Lieutenant, that you know or suspect more than you let on."

"Me?" Face's face went blank, but a fraction of a second too late. His team knew him very, very well after all. The slight hesitation in his voice made BA frown and Murdock gasp.

"You know something you aint telling us?" Ba growled, taking Face by his collar. The lieutenant squirmed.

"It's alright, BA, let him go," Hannibal put an arm around his youngest team member that wasn't so much comforting as it was a warning.

"The moment it becomes a danger to the team, Face WILL let us know EXACTLY what is going on."

The command in his voice was unmistakable.

"Yes, sir," Face muttered and made his way into the church the moment his CO released him.

"You lettin' him off like that, Hannibal?" BA asked in disbelief.

"For now," the Colonel nodded, "I think Face is wrestling with whatever it is himself, as are those kids."

"Shouldn't we find out what it is, then, Colonel? Moo would love to help them." Murdock supplied.

"All in good time, Captain. All in good time."

sssssssss

"Ta ta ta taaaaaaa ta taaa taaa…..ta ta ta TA taaaaaa….ta ta ta ta taaa…ta ta ta taaaaaaaa ta taaa taaa... "

"Hermione...what on earth are you doing ?"

"Humming."

"How can you be humming at a time like this?"

Hermione looked up. "Well, yes. We HAVE been captured and bound to a pole in an old shed. But, I am certain the A Team will soon come to rescue us."

Ron stared at her. "Harry…Hermione's gone round the bend, mate."

Harry shrugged. "Well, maybe not so much," he said as he heard the footsteps on the roof.

He looked at the rope that ran across his stomach.

"I could try a wandless Sectumsempra…"

"Are you crazy? You could cut yourself in half with that!"

"Diffindo, then?"

"Won't work on rope."

"Well then I'll just have to be careful about my aim, won't I?" Harry wriggled his finger loose enough to point at the rope.

"Now sit very still…if either of you pull the rope I could end up cutting through my aorta or something."

"That's reassuring," Ron muttered.

Focusing intently, Harry very clearly pronounced "Sectumsempra!"

"Harry?" Hermione asked, "Harry? Did you cut yourself? Harry?"

"Wait a sec, Mi," Harry pulled a little and soon they all felt the ropes slacken.

"There."

Ron sighed happily. "Now, lets just cast an Alohomora and we'll be on our way."

Hermione sighed in annoyance. "We're surrounded, Ronald. Even Disillusioning wouldn't do much good now."

Harry looked around, picked up some tools and kicked an old barrel. "You know…I think we can do something with this…"

ssssssss

"They're gone, Hannibal! Them fools kidnapped the kids!"

Hannibal chewed on his cigar with a worried expression.

"Where can they have taken them, Col'nel?" Murdock had dropped the crazy act altogether and was already going over several possible plans in his head.

"Most likely that old shed behind the Kilby farm," Hannibal mused, "we must hurry. They are getting good, but this is beyond them."

sssssssssss

"I had my wand in my holster," Harry took it out, "stand back."

Ron sat at the wheel of the undeniably ugly contraption they had created using the old barrels, an old motorcycle and a variety of other scrap. "Ready, Mi?"

Hermione, sitting behind Ron and pointing her wand, that she had kept strapped to her leg, over the protective iron of the barrel.

"Alright, Harry. Open the door…and be quick to jump on!"

Harry nodded. "ALOHOMORA!"

Ron started up the engine. Harry dove onto the…vehicle and aimed his wand out as well.

"Stupify, Stupify, Expelliarmus!"

Turning to the left, Hermione saw a jeep coming towards her, Leroy inside aiming a gun at her.

"BOMBARDA!" she heard Harry shout, and the jeep turned over, the engine blown to bits.

Wesley paled, turned and began to run away from the crazy children. Ron laughed as he turned the wheel and followed him. A quick levitation charm from Hermione and Wesley was dangling in the air in front of them.

"Right," Harry surveyed the battlefield, "Bind, Obliviate and march into town, I think."

They set to work, and were only just done Obliviating the last when the A-Team arrived in the van.

"Hello," Hermione greeted the stunned men, "Thanks for coming. We need a little help getting them to town. We figured, if the town sees them defeated, they will realize they are not all-powerful and stand up to them more."

"I agree," Face nodded, turning to Hannibal whose cigar lay forgotten on the ground, "Hannibal? Bad guys? Town? Prison?"

"I'm glad you taught us welding and all, BA, it really paid off," Ron dragged Wesley up.

Face, seeing that the others were unlikely to respond anytime soon, took care of the bound criminals, put the other three in the van while he and Ron uprighted a jeep to drive back to town.

"The moment we are back, and these people in the sheriff's office, all three of you are going to come with me," he let them know calmly.

They paled, but nodded.

ssssssssssssss

Their entrance into town was marvellous. The townspeople, now seeing that Leroy and Wesley were nothing more than bullies, happily took care of the locking up. On behalf of the centre, many complaints were filed and the men would probably spend quite some time in prison.

"Come along now," Face motioned the teens, "we're leaving."

Sitting in the jeep, they sped along the highways until they reached a remote farmhouse. Face pulled over and turned to the three.

"A friend of mine lives here. I Floo'ed him and asked him to help you as a special favour to me. He will provide you with a permanent Portkey so that you can return here as often as needed."

He looked grim when three wands were trained on him immediately.

"If I meant you harm, would I have brought you here, and hidden what you are from even my team members, my closest friends?"

"How do you know?" Harry asked hoarsely.

"It was quite obvious, really. You and Hermione know enough of this world, but Ron is hopelessly clueless. Furthermore…there was absolutely no way, even with how much you've improved in training, that you could have taken on all these men today and won. You were beaten up by them only days earlier – but then there were plenty of witnesses, weren't there?"

He got out of the car and whistled. The door opened and a man, about Face's age got out. His skin was dark, though not nearly as dark as BA's. His black eyes distrusting until they rested on Face.

"Temp! So, these are my new students?"

He studied the three carefully. "Hmmm…yes. Plenty of potential to work with, and if they have withstood your CO's training methods, they are at least not afraid of hard work. Yes, I suppose I would not go completely insane training them."

"Thanks, Jake. You know the location to our hide-out?"

"Yes, and made a Portkey. Don't worry. You will have enough on your hands explaining this situation to your team."

Hermione frowned. "Is it allowed here to tell people about…no statute of secrecy?"

"Well, yes," Jake answered, "but it is not restricted to just family members. I will send them back tonight, Temp. You go and face the music now."

Face made a face.

"Thank you ever so much, Jake. I'm looking forward especially to the Colonel's reaction. See you tonight, kids."

"We…we don't want to get you in trouble with Hannibal," Harry started, "we can come back and…"

"Later, Harry. You'll get your turn to explain things, don't worry. There are many things I don't understand yet either so you will probably get interrogated tonight."

With a quick wave goodbye, Face turned the jeep and began the journey back to town – where he knew a very impatient team would be waiting.

As predicted, the moment he crossed the church doors, he was met with three angry stares.

"Where the hell is going on, Lieutenant? You better start explaining…NOW!"


	6. Chapter 6

The Trio looked at Jake somewhat warily.

"So you're Face's friend," Harry hazarded.

"I am," Jake answered calmly, "come on in."

The inside of the house was what anyone would have expected, but Jake tapped a few bricks on a wall and it slunk away, revealing a staircase.

"Come along, kids."

Underneath the house was a place that reminded the teens of both the Gryffindor Common room as well as Snape's dungeons. It was an eerie combination.

"Sit," Jake motioned to some nice squashy chairs, "I'll answer our questions first before I show you the training rooms."

"Rooms? Did he say rooms, plural?" Ron anxiously asked.

"First, I would know your names. Mine is Jake, as you already know."

"Harry."

"Hermione."

"Ron."

"Will you teach us just like this, without knowing who we are or why we need to be taught?" Harry studied Jake's face warily.

"I will. I am also not as ignorant of your origins as you may believe. I sensed the disturbance near Topeka. It was a rather large magical backlash and I am surprised the Wizarding authorities dismissed it as a freak accident. I have done quite a bit of studying and the magical shockwaves felt as if you have Apparated from halfway across the galaxy."

"So you think we're aliens?" Harry raised an amused eyebrow.

"No. I think you had to have very good reasons if you used such desperate measures to come here and train."

"We didn't exactly plan to come here," Hermione sighed, "something went wrong. We were to meet our teachers but I guess I got the Arithmancy mixed up."

"We did not have the means or the power to try again, at least not for now," Harry bit his fingernails, "nor can we return home."

"Then we will have to make the best of this situation. I understand you have all been in physical training already, which is something many wizards tend to neglect. As for magic – we will have to experiment. I am self-taught and therefore my magic is channelled in different ways than those who studied at official schools. Since you were, at your age, capable of performing such a huge feat of magic, you may be able to master various methods. This entire basement is warded heavily to contain accidents."

The three shared a glance. "We have little choice but to trust you, like we had little choice but to trust the A Team," Hermione hesitated, "that turned out well, and Face trusts you…"

Jake smiled. "I understand, and I am willing to swear to you I do not mean you harm."

When all three nodded, he grinned and started his oath.

sssssssss

"Yeah, what the Colonel said," Murdock frowned, "You kept secrets from us. That's not nice."

BA didn't say a word, and that didn't bode well. Face sighed and sat down.

"I know, and I am sorry. But I couldn't tell you anything, it's against the law."

Rather predictably, that earned a snort from the others. "Since when have we worried about the law when it came to doing the right thing?"

"Not our law, Hannibal, and telling you wasn't the right thing. The Wizarding Law forbids non-magical people being told about the Wizarding world unless there is an emergency or they are in a close relationship with a wizard or witch."

Hannibal paled, BA looked like he was frozen, and Murdock's eyes widened while he pretended to cuddle Moo.

"Wizard?"

"Yes," Face pressed on, "look, I know it's hard to believe, but those kids are wizards. They can do magic. That's probably how they got here in the first place though I don't know how yet. I dropped them off at an old friend of mine who is a wizard and will help them train their magic."

To his surprise, Hannibals angry expression faded and turned into a worried frown. BA unfroze and also lost any anger.

"A friend?"

"Yes," Face nodded, relieved they reacted so calmly, "his name is Jake. We were in the orphanage together. Now, he never really joined the Wizarding world, but he does know enough magic to help them. He's sending them back tonight so you can ask them about it then."

Hannibal took off one of his gloves and rested his hand against Face's forehead. "He's not warm," he remarked to BA and Murdock.

"Hannibal, I'm not ill! You saw what happened to those people today, do you really think three kids could have done that if there weren't something special about them?"

BA now approached too. "Do you think we should take him to Dr Richter?"

Murdock shrugged. "Probably for the best, Faceman, really – I know there's a lot of strange things out there, my Moo is one of them, but a whole world of magic we know nothing about? That's just way crazy, man."

"I'm not crazy! You have to believe me! Hannibal," he turned to the Colonel, "would I ever come up with something like this to scam out of a lecture?"

The Colonel thoughtfully eyed Face. "I don't know, Face, it doesn't sound like you, but magic? Come on. There's no shame in being a little overworked – this job did take a lot out of all of us, having the kids along for the first time."

"You have to understand, please, BA," he pleaded with the large man, "I'm not lying, I'm not. I'm telling you the truth. The kids will explain when they come back later on."

"You better tell us where you took 'em, Faceman, so we can go get them." Murdock looked upset, "what if they're in danger?"

"They're with JAKE, they're not in danger!" Face insisted.

Hannibal sighed. "BA, lock him in the van. We're heading back to our hideout and then make a plan to get the kids. Murdock, contact Dr Richter and ask him if there's any way he can make a housecall on Face."

"No…NO! Hannibal, please, listen to me! Let me explain!" Face bellowed as BA lifted him, hoisted him over his shoulder and carried him to the red-striped vehicle.

ssssssssssss

After introductions had been made and the teens had explained what they had done on their own, Jake had nodded in approval.

"You did well. I started out that way. I have acquired a wand since then, but when I was young I didn't have one."

He had waved his hand and conjured up a target.

"Maybe you are too set in your ways already to learn, but it won't harm to try. Furthermore, we are going to practice your aim. Face has instructions to teach you archery on the days you train with him and his friends, but we are going to work on moving targets. What good is it if you can throw powerful spells only to miss your opponent by a mile, or worse, hit innocent bystanders? Make every curse count."

He had them practice on a still target first, pleased that they were capable of hitting it almost every time. Harry in particular, due to his Quidditch training, had an eye for it and soon he no longer missed at all.

"Good. Now the targets will be moving in predictable patterns. Harder to hit, but still easy to anticipate. When you have improved even more, I will set the targets to move around in random patterns, and even to try and mislead you."

The training was hard, but they enjoyed it immensely. To use magic again without fear of detection, and to engage in some friendly competition felt wonderful to them.

Finally, Jake handed them the Portkey.

"The password is Jake's Cellar. It will take you here. To return to wherever you and your friends are stationed, say 'Base Camp'. I will see you here the day after tomorrow, and you will stay a week."

"Thank you, sir," Harry accepted the Portkey, "and thank you for taking the time to train us. We'll see you then." They all touched the Portkey, which was a small booklet and left.

Jake nodded and smiled as the three disappeared. "You're very welcome…Harry Potter."

sssssssssssss

Face had protested, fought and pleaded for a long time, but now he was locked in his room, stripped of every lockpick and instrument he had, the room locked and another padlock added to the outside. The same for the shutters. Dr Richter had promised to come by the next day.

The team was downstairs, discussing events and planning a rescue for children not in need of rescuing.

The sound of three pairs of feet landing in the room next to him made him look up.

"Harry? Hermione? Ron? Is that you?" he asked at the door.

"Face? Why are you locked up? Alohomora!"

The door opened and Face stepped out. "They didn't believe me! They're going to lock me up with Murdock."

"We'll just have to give them some proof, then," Hermione sighed.

They walked downstairs, surprising the team.

"Where have you lot been? And how did Face get out?" Hannibal checked his pockets "I still have the keys."

"Yeah. But we have spells."

Face turned to the teens. "You had better show them, or they will lock us all up."

"Accio Hannibal's cigar," Hermione pointed her wand. The cigar flew flawlessly into her hand, leaving a shocked and frustrated Hannibal.

"Not the cigar!" he whined.

"Levicorpus," Ron grinned and aimed at Murdock. The pilot yelped as he was turned upside down and held by an invisible force.

"Petrificus Totalis," and BA went rigid.

"Evanesco," Harry cast at the papers that held the complicated plans Hannibal was thinking up to rescue them. They vanished without a trace.

"You don't need those," he commented calmly, "we are perfectly safe."

sssssssssss

A few minutes later Hannibal had his cigar back, Murdock was returned to his feet and BA unfrozen.

"So I guess our little demonstration convinced you?" Harry asked a bit nervously.

"Yeah…yeah." Hannibal shook his head. "Face…sorry kid."

"That's okay, Colonel, it did sound a bit strange. Now may I tell my story of how I met Jake, and learned to recognize wizards?"

He leaned back into the couch. "I was nine or ten, I think, and Jake had come to live in the orphanage a few months before. He was a year younger than me, a very cute kid, but always being teased. There are kids like that, you know. Who always bear the brunt of the bullying without doing anything. At first I stood up for him, you know, helping him in fights but I couldn't always – we were often outnumbered. But for some reason no matter how outnumbered we were, Jakey could not be touched. Something would always happen, the boys attacking him hurt their hand as they hit him, he would suddenly be in a different spot without anyone seeing him move…that sort of thing. The others were soon too afraid of him to come near, but he was my friend and nothing weird ever happened to me around him."

He sighed and stared ahead.

"Jakey had less and less control. The nuns noticed. They talked about it, they even considered an exorcism, but the priest they summoned told them Jake didn't show any signs of being possessed other than the unexplained happenings around him. They shunned him, too. Then he got a letter. From a school that would train him in magic. He was so happy…so happy to finally know what was going on, what the strange power he had was.

The bullies happened upon him when he was cheering over his letter. I was sitting near, laughing along with him…my warning came to late. They grabbed him, tore his letter and proceeded to beat him up – I warned them, I screamed for Jake – there was a flash, and Jake collapsed, as did the ring leader. When the smoke cleared, the boy was dead."

"Accidental magic, as the investigators called it, had lashed out and killed the boy. His invitation to school was withdrawn, and the orphanage would no longer have him. He ended up on the streets, finally learning control and mastering his magic. I saw him often, helping him. Then one day he disappeared. I only learned what he had done shortly before I joined the army. He had somehow made his way to a Wizarding village in the desert, and they had taken him in. He perfected his skill there. We've kept in contact ever since, although Jake prefers to stay away from all people now, magic or not. When it became clear to me that these three are also magical, I asked Jake to teach them, because they need more than we can provide in training."

"That is how I got to know about magic, Colonel."


	7. Chapter 7

After that faithful first day when they met Jake and the three eldest A-Team members learned about Magic, the years passed quietly

After that faithful first day when they met Jake and the three eldest A-Team members learned about Magic, the years passed quietly. Between training with Jake and helping the A-Team, all three teens grew strong, powerful and in top shape, courtesy of Hannibal's unrelenting training regime. The ropes course helped immensely with that. A few years, and they were no longer teens but young people who were confident in their abilities.

Over ten years after they had left, when it had been a long time since Jake was able to teach them anything and they had travelled the world gaining more knowledge (Hermione) more power (Harry) and exotic recipes (Ron), they realized the time was getting near to go back home.

"Do you remember third year, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"How could I forget?" Harry rolled his eyes, "Dementors, werewolf, Sirius escapes…"

"Exactly. Do you remember that when we got the time-turner, we had to be back at the precise moment we left? How that solved the time-loop?"

"Theoretically."

"Yes. If we manage to sneak into Hogwarts undetected, go to the Chamber, watch our old selves depart and then take their place…"

"But we don't look anything like those children anymore!" Ron exclaimed, "we are ten years older, in much better shape and far more powerful."

"Yes. But once our old selves have left, we don't have to keep up appearances. If we announced our return NOW, a full year early, anyone could try to interfere with our departure, disrupting this loop and getting us inside it. Once our old selves leave, they will cease to exist because we have already been through the past ten years, and we will be safe."

"So, no giving our old selves the correct calculations and sending them back to the Founders, eh?" Harry smiled wryly.

"No, but honestly Harry, it turns out we didn't need to go all the way back after all, did we?" Hermione cast an affectionate glance at where BA was fixing the van, with Murdock alternating between helping him and annoying him with his imaginary pet.

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world," Harry said, "I will miss these guys when we're back home."

"Yeah," Hermione sighed, "it's been good."

ssssssssss

Arriving in England was a bit of an anticlimax. They had to take extreme care not to stand out too much and not draw attention to the fact that three unknown wizards had just entered the Wizarding World that was already in a state of alert, but after his losses in the department of mysteries Voldemort had been quiet for a while.

"Wait a minute. How are we going to get into Hogwarts without triggering the wards?" Ron asked.

"We don't." Hermione replied calmly, "since we are supposed to be on the school grounds anyway. All students are keyed into the wards. That we are already inside shouldn't affect them – the wards check our magical signatures upon entering, will see that we are Harry, Ron and Hermione, and leave it at that. Our younger selves will be down in the Chamber, making it much harder for anyone inside the castle to detect that there are two sets of us instead of one. We go down, wait at a safe distance until our younger selves have gone, and that will be it."

Harry nodded. The past months had been hard on him, especially the day of the Department of Mysteries. In a way he had lost Sirius again on that date, knowing that his only chance of saving him was gone. It had been like that a year before as well, when Cedric died. That had even made the foreign wizard papers.

Hermione had explained time and again that he didn't have a chance to save them, that for everything to work out as it should, nothing could be changed back home so in reality there was no chance. Emotionally it had been difficult, however.

"Fortunately we all have invisibility cloaks now," he remarked, pulling on his father's, "we cannot be seen."

Invisibility cloaks, invisibility spells, spells to block their scent (not knowing if Remus would be in the castle, but wanting to prevent Mrs Norris from detecting them as well) as well as making themselves soundless. In addition to the A-Team's favoured stealth techniques, they were confident that they could pass through the castle undetected – but wouldn't take any chances no matter what.

The trio had helped the A Team on several assignments the past years, but mostly they had been training and travelling. It had been nearly a year since they had met up with the Team and they found themselves longing for the 'good old days' sometimes. Using what the A Team had taught them helped.

"Alright. Here goes." Harry muttered as they walked the road from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts.

When they entered the wards, a slight nudge that was normally not detected by the not yet fully trained students of the school, told them they had been accepted.

Relying on hand signals, not even whispering, they moved through the school, passing hallway after hallway until they arrived at the girl's bathroom.

Harry stretched out his hand, making it ghostlike. Then he focussed and aimed for the wailing ghost that was floating around the sink. With a slight pop, the ghost froze, hit by an incorporeal Stunner.

Ron immediately floated her to one of the cubicles where she wouldn't be seen when their younger selves would enter later on. Meanwhile, Harry hissed at the sink and opened it. Without hesitation, all three slid down. Once inside, Harry closed up the entrance again and they moved to a secure position.

"We won't be here for another couple of hours yet," he said, no longer bothering to keep quiet since no one could hear them now, "lets get some rest. No doubt all hell will break lose soon enough."

Sure enough, three hours later they heard the entrance and their younger selves slid down onto the floor as well.

"My, we look young! Boy, does my hair look bushy or what?" Hermione whispered.

The three teens began to set up the ritual area with their adult counterparts looking on.

"That's where things went wrong," Hermione pointed, "see that? The Arithmancy is off by just a little, but I also used a wrong rune there. Either one of them could have killed us – as it is, the combination simply moved us somewhere else. We were very, very lucky."

"You don't say," Ron muttered, a little pale, "and I thought you were never wrong."

Hermione smacked him. "I was sixteen, Ron!"

"Alright…here goes…" Harry whispered.

The ritual began just as they remembered it.

"Did the ground shake this much the first time too?" Ron asked.

"This IS the first time," Hermione corrected, "and yes, it did. We were just too focussed to really notice."

"That is undoubtedly going to bring the staff to the bathroom," Harry sighed, "I guess we won't have to wait long to give our explanations."

"No," Hermione agreed. The three forms of the teens grew faint, until eventually they disappeared altogether.

"We're in Kansas once more," Hermione said with a nod of her chin, "Tonight we'll have met up with the A Team."

"Ugh," Ron groaned, "poor us. Remember how much RUNNING we had to do those first weeks?"

"It also means that the next ten years, we have to avoid the USA, and wherever else we went," Harry pointed out.

"Isn't it going to be really crowded in here, a few loops from now, with all of us waiting in here?" Ron asked.

"No, because next time it won't be us here, but those kids who just disappeared, who are also just us. There's a single loop, and now that we've taken it, we move on through linear time again."

"They are waiting for us upstairs," Harry pointed out.

"Lets face the music then," Ron shrugged, "we're not frightened inexperienced kids anymore."

"To them we are," Hermione said gently, "to us it's been over a decade, but to them this change happened overnight. Go easy on them, guys. It will be hard for them to get used to our adult selves."

"Especially for Snape," Ron sniggered.

Chuckling a little, the three went back through the pipes, emerging in front of a worried group of staff members.

"WHAT did you DO, Potter!" Snape, as always the most alert and first to spot them, yelled.

"Good heavens," Professor Sprout muttered, "someone had better get the Headmaster."

"No need, I am already here," twinkling blue eyes turned to solemn as the old man regarded the teens.

"Oh dear. Would you care to explain this?"

"Certainly," Harry replied, "shall we move up to your office? A bathroom is hardly the proper place for such an exchange."

Too baffled, and seeing the Headmaster concur, the group followed behind the Headmaster and three not-teens-anymore to the Headmasters tower, Snape still clutching his wand.


	8. Chapter 8

Arriving at the Headmaster's office, the Trio took the offered chairs with little hesitation, exuding confidence and experience

Arriving at the Headmaster's office, the Trio took the offered chairs with little hesitation, exuding confidence and experience.

"I think we would all very much like an explanation," the Headmaster's eyes twinkled as he watched Harry.

"Of course, Headmaster, though I must ask you to refrain from entering my mind as you just did," Harry answered equally pleasantly – he could never thank Hannibal and Face enough for teaching them some diplomatic skills – "and I kindly request Professor Snape to do the same."

The dark man scowled in a somewhat impressed way.

"What the hell happened, Mr Potter?" Harry's Head of House – or was that former Head of House?- summoned up the general feelings in the room.

Harry sighed.

"Well, about a dozen years ago – a few hours your time – Hermione, Ron and I performed a Time Ritual."

A few professors – Dumbledore, Snape, and Vector - gasped. The others looked unsure, but got the impression that this was Something Important.

"Something went wrong," Hermione added, "I was only sixteen, and the calculations and runes needed were beyond my skill level. We had planned to return to the time of the Founders."

"Needless to say that is not where we ended up," Ron muttered.

"Look at it on the bright side," Harry smiled charmingly, "we weren't killed." He gave the Headmaster a significant look and the old man eyed him suspiciously.

"Why, Mr Potter? Why undertake something so ludicrously dangerous?"

"Because he is Potter, and that's what he DOES," Snape rolled his eyes.

Harry laughed, causing half the room to collapse in shock. A Potter, laughing at what might have been an attempted joke from Snape?

"Indeed, Professor. I was a cocky, overconfident child. In my defence I must add that I grew up neglected and with no adults I could trust, instead turning to my friends when I was in need. You are correct, however. It was a foolish thing to do even if it did work out for the best."

That effectively shocked Snape into silence, at least for the time being.

"Explain what exactly a Time Ritual is, please," Professor McGonagall was not going to be distracted.

"A Time Ritual is, basically, a ritual that sends one or more persons back in time – a significant amount of time instead of the few hours a Time Turner can manage. The calibration requires extreme precision or it can kill the potential time traveller," Hermione explained, "our ritual had two flaws. Either of them would have killed us, fortunately for us however they cancelled each other out and merely changed our destination."

"You did not end up with the Founders?" there seemed something like disappointment in the Charms Professors squeaky voice.

"We did not end up with the Founders, which in hindsight is probably a good thing. We probably would have distorted the time lines and gotten ourselves stuck in a time loop."

"Then where did you go?" the Headmaster asked.

"Sorry Sir. I'm afraid I can't tell you that yet."

"Why did you leave in the first place?" Flitwick asked, "I know to us, you haven't really left, but obviously you've been gone many years. Why? Why did you do something so extreme?"

Harry's face became a little colder, his eyes a tad more steely. "I was told I am the one to defeat Voldemort. That a prophesy said so. I asked for training, anything to help me survive to fulfil the role I had to play, and the answer was always no. I understand now, Headmaster, why you refused, but your reasons were flawed. No matter, they do no longer exist."

Dumbledore's face shone with hesitant hope. "They do not?"

Harry lifted his hair, showing a tiny white scar where once a vivid red lightening bolt had been.

"Merely a scar now, Headmaster. The Horcrux is gone. Next time you have to solve a difficult problem, try using sources outside Britain. There IS an entire world out there, you know."

"I visited the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons libraries…" the old man began.

"Oh pshaw," Hermione shook her head, "is that all? There are mountains of information if you know where to look for them. I'd have thought in over a hundred years you'd have bothered to find it, especially since Harry's life depended on it."

"Potters life?" Snape had finally found his voice.

"Yes, Professor. The reason I received no training is that I was supposed to die. My death, after the removal of the other five Horcruxes, would have made Voldemort vulnerable enough to kill."

Snape turned to Dumbledore, a look of betrayal in his eyes. "I thought we were keeping the boy safe, for Lily!" he accused.

"So you did," Harry interrupted, "you were keeping me safe until the right moment for me to die. What is the life of one boy, cursed almost since birth, against the lives of so many? Of course the Headmaster did not _want_ me to die, but if that was what it took to defeat Voldemort – well, let's just say that after the things we've seen and heard over the years, I understand his point of view a little better."

The Headmaster, who had been expecting a tirade from the Trio at the very least, looked up in surprise.

"You are no longer children," the Deputy Headmistress concluded.

"We are not. Technically I suppose we are still sixteen, but in reality we are in our late twenties. We have filed forms with the Ministry, confidentially of course, to have our age modified. We are now recognized as the adults we are."

"What do you mean by that?" the Headmaster asked. The other staff in the room kept quiet, still trying to wrap their minds around the fact that three of their students turned into adults in the blink of an eye.

"I mean that while we would not mind staying at Hogwarts to coordinate the war effort, we most certainly will not be taking classes, though we may be persuaded to teach some. I will not return to the Dursleys. Hermione will explain matters to her parents, as will Ron, but we are mature adults now, Headmaster. We came back to fight Voldemort. Happy as we are to work with the Order of the Phoenix, we will do so as equals, not children to be patronized or lied to."

Harry paused for a moment. "We do realize this is a huge shock for all of you and you need time to adjust – that is only to be expected. You were plunged into this situation while we've had over a decade to prepare. We will of course be patient with you."

Most of the staff left, the core of the Order remaining to discuss war efforts. Snape seemed uncommonly subdued, either by the realisation that the boy he spent years protecting was supposed to die, or by being confronted with a suddenly adult version of Harry Potter that reacted calmly to his biting comments and openly admitted to being terribly Gryffindorish in his youth. It made the Trio exchange amused glances. Much as they had despised Snape, it was obvious the man had tried to keep Harry safe, for whatever reason. Long years spent with the A Team and then travelling had taught them that nice people could be evil and obnoxious people could turn out to be decent.

"Hard to think in black and whites when you're travelling with escaped convicts who are also the best people you've ever met," Ron had shrugged a few years back when they contemplated their lives before the Time Ritual.

The next few days were spent planning, going over information Snape brought back and avoiding the glances and questions from the student body.

Then, nearly a week after their return, a student came screaming into the Great Hall, blabbering about a monster with a terrifying roar. The staff rushed to the doors where many of the Muggleborns and Halfbloods eyed the poor Pureblood student with something akin to pity.

A black and red van drove onto the lawn, nearly rammed the caretaker's hut and came to a halt near the stairs.

The doors opened and four familiar figures emerged.

"Hi kids," Hannibal said, biting his eternal cigar, "still in time for the fun, I hope?"

sssssssss

"NO! No Hannibal, you guys are going back," Harry frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, "I appreciate you wanting to help, but this is no battle for Muggles."

"Listen kid," BA growled, "No sucker is going to take out our kids, we got something to say about that. No magic ain't gonna stop us, man."

"Right," Murdock added, "we're not saying we'll take them all on by ourselves, but we're going to help."

"I agree," Face nodded, "Jake gave us some protection. We'll be careful. Aren't we ever?"

At the Trio's dubious look, Hannibal added, "'Sides, this Volley fellow threatens to kill all our kind, and we're not going to leave our fate in the hands of people who wanted to send a kid to do a man's job – hell, an army's job. So we're staying. End of story."

The unholy gleam in his eyes told the Trio that arguing was pointless.

Hermione shrugged. "Should be interesting to introduce them to the staff," she said dryly. Her friends grinned.


	9. Chapter 9

Arriving at the Headmaster's office, the Trio took the offered chairs with little hesitation, exuding confidence and experience

The Hogwarts staff looked on in some surprise when the Trio introduced the four men that came in the Muggle contraption as their 'teachers' but decided for expediencies' sake not to argue.

"So…how's the war effort?" Hannibal grinned, "any good plans yet?"

"Look, Mr…erm…"

"Smith, John Smith. But you can call me Colonel or Hannibal," the blue eyes twinkled merrily, offsetting everyone in the room.

"We've studied under these people for a great number of years," Ron said, "they have our complete confidence."

"Truly?" The Potions Master's dark eyes took in the strange appearance and American accents.

"Yeah, really," BA approached, "You must be that Snape guy. Them kids told us 'bout you. Been waiting to meet you."

For the first time ever, the room saw the Potions Master actually gulp.

"I…erm…" His eyes widened as he saw a large black fist approach.

BA held out his hand. "Told me you were a mean son of…but that you were the only one trying to keep 'em safe. Can't be an easy job, what with the things this lot gets into."

The Trio didn't even bother to look mildly offended, though some jaws did drop when the Potions Master accepted the Hagrid-sized hand. "Yes, well, the war is hopefully almost over," he said, having regained his bearings – somewhat.

"So, what's the plan?" Hannibal nearly bounced in excitement.

"Well…we don't have 'a' plan as such…"

"Nothing? Nada? Harry, they're as bad as you told me!" Hannibal took out his cigar.

"Oh dear, you've done it now," Face moaned in fake upset, "He's on the Jazz!"

"The..Jazz?" Professor McGonagall inquired.

"Yeah, the Jazz," Harry replied, "Kind of like the Headmaster when he overdoses on lemon drops. Only saner and actually productive."

He frowned.

"Alright, not so much saner as insane in a less infuriating way."

"I am right here, you know," the Headmaster pointed out.

"So you are," Harry observed calmly.

"Now kids, no fighting," Hannibal's eyes twinkled brightly, "we have planning to do!"

ssssssssss

"Here, Murdock. There's someone here we've been dying to introduce to you," Ron pulled the pilot along.

"Hello," Murdock heard behind him, and turned around to see a blue-eyed girl in school robes, "My, what a pretty miniature giant space mouse!"

"Murdock, meet Luna. Luna, this is Murdock," Ron grinned widely.

"Hi," Murdock said, "would you like to hold Moo?"

Ron left them alone, both of them petting the tiny creature no one but the two of them could see.

ssssssssss

"A plane?" Minerva asked sceptically, "what is a 'plane'?"

Hannibal looked confused and looked over to the Trio for help.

"Pureblood," Harry shrugged.

Snape turned to his colleague. "An airplane is a Muggle contraption, not unlike that van of theirs, with steel wings and a large engine that enables it to fly."

Arthur Weasley bounced in excitement. "Really? You are going to bring one? Can I see? Can I fly in it? Can OUCH, Molly!"

"And how do you know this, Severus?" Minerva asked.

"Half-blood," Snape shrugged, "raised in a Muggle neighbourhood."

Most of the room stared at him in shock, until Face cleared his throat. "Ahem, not to be rude or anything, but we really have things to plan."

"Very well," Minerva turned back, "how do we use this 'plane'?"

"The Death Eaters will most likely be on broomsticks," Harry pointed out.

Murdock grinned happily. "Imagine a plane flying right through their formation – they'll drop like flies."

Many faces paled. "Muggles can do that? Without getting hurt?"

"They'd be sitting inside a steel construction, whereas we fly unprotected on brooms," Harry pointed out, "the statute of secrecy protects us more than it protects them. We would not stand a chance against Muggles. That is why it is so important we keep Voldemort from attacking them – if they retaliate, we're history."

"And, of course, it is the right thing to do," Hannibal nodded, "we don't like being murdered any more than you do."

"You don't say," Snape muttered as he bent over the maps, "well, the Dark Lord is likely to fall into a trap if Potter is truly as accomplished a Legilimens now as he claims…" he continued out loud.

Harry smiled. "Would you like a demonstration?"

Snape scowled. "If you think you can break into my mind – even the Headmaster can't."

Harry focussed in response, stroking ghostly mental fingers over the smooth surface that protected the Potions Master's mind. He had a very gentle touch – in the East the art of Occlumency and Legilimency was much more refined than the crude Western counterparts. Suddenly Snape realized that the fingers no longer ran over the outside of his shields, but had melted into them, only to emerge on the inside.

Harry caught a few glimpses – the same small boy backed up against a wall while someone who had to be Snape's father yelled – before he retreated. He had not come to spy after all, merely to make a point. The only thing he did retrieve from Snape's mind was the knowledge that yes, the man was truly on their side. His previous actions had already confirmed it, but it was good to know for sure.

He looked upon the man with sympathy. Snape prepared to lash out until he realized Harry was not giving him any looks of pity. Merely understanding and the unspoken promise that what he saw would be between the two of them.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well…that was adequate, Potter."

Harry smiled in acknowledgment before turning to the Headmaster. "The Horcrux is gone, but a link to Voldemort remains – due to his entering my mind before and the blood we share. It is closed now, but I can reopen it and send him a challenge straight into his mind."

Snape nodded. "I do not believe he would let an insult like that slide. He would wish to retaliate in any way possible."

"If only you had finished him off when he was still hiding in Albania," Moody grumbled.

"And what good would that have done?" Hermione asked, "that would have meant we never would perform the time ritual. We would not have sent ourselves back to destroy Voldemort. Time loop again. It was…difficult," she admitted.

"Especially the days when Cedric and Sirius died," Harry added, his voice hoarse, "don't think it wasn't. Don't think we weren't tempted. We simply could not act, and if we had done something irrational by letting our feelings overcome our better judgment, we might have damned our entire world instead of saving it as we had set out to do."

"Alright," Hannibal called again, "guys – the PLAN?"

sssssssssssss

Wormtail was looking at his boss. Sure, being a Death Eater had its drawbacks. Getting Crucio'ed was likely against the Geneva convention. Then again, bossing around people simply on account of wearing a mask and robes was kinda fun.

"Wormtail," Voldemort said and then suddenly went very, very cross-eyed.

Wormtail, who thought Voldemort was having a little fun pulling faces, laughed merrily. "Good one, my Lord," it truly had been. Of course, Voldemort's face already looked like he was pulling a face all the time, but the cross-eyed really added to it.

"POTTER!" the abomination hissed, "what happened to you? Who taught you to do this?"

Wormtail gulped as he realized this wasn't a game, and he had laughed and clapped over something that was making his master VERY angry. Oh dear. Perhaps it was time to write to this Geneva convention…

"OUT! OUT! I will get you Potter! You and your little friends! You stand no chance against me!"

Voldemorts eyes came into focus again. So angry he forgot to even curse the rat for making fun of him, he ordered, "WORMTAIL! Gather all my forces! Potter plans to take control of Merlin's Cave, we are going to Cornwall to head him off before he reaches it and uncovers whatever old tomes are buried there!"

ssssssss

"Done?" Face asked in concern.

"Yep," Harry stood up, a little pale but smirking, "Cornwall it is. Nice and remote, instead of near a school full of children or Diagon Alley in the middle of bloody London like the Headmaster suggested."

"BA is already welding and I have scamming to do. Are you coming?"

Harry laughed. "No, but take Snape along. That could be very interesting."


	10. Chapter 10

Between Face and a Slytherin Head of House, the Muggle shopkeepers they visited never stood a chance at not being scammed out of their merchandise

Between Face and a Slytherin Head of House, the Muggle shopkeepers they visited never stood a chance at not being scammed out of their merchandise. As they crossed item after item off their shopping list, Snape turned to the blonde man.

"A peculiar nickname," he commented, "how did you acquire it?"

"In Nam," Face said, "I could scam my way out of anything if I pulled an innocent enough face. At least, until I met Hannibal. Don't think anyone else ever saw through it."

"A Slytherin," Snape felt a sudden burst of sympathy for the man.

"If I had been a wizard, and living in England, and going to Hogwarts, probably," Face shrugged. "But then I wouldn't have had to look after myself for so long, from the orphanage on, and I probably wouldn't have learned the skills I have now."

"The Dark Lord grew up in an orphanage as well," Snape mused.

"Yeah, well, I am not really surprised. I've seen kids like that in the orphanage, especially when they were brought in as babies. In my last place it wasn't so bad because the nuns were there, you know – some stayed for twenty or thirty years. But in other places where there were different people all the time, some kids went bad. Wouldn't learn to play with others. Some became bullies. Of course, they never had magic at their disposal. That Voldemort fellow of yours – sounds like a case of attachment disorder gone horribly wrong. Excuse me for saying it, but your world is even more insane than ours, arming eleven year olds with lethal weapons without anyone ever checking to see if they are healthy enough, mentally, to deal with that."

Snape said nothing, mostly because he could not disagree with the man.

"Anyway, the name they gave me in the orphanage is Templeton Peck."

"With a name like that you would certainly fit into the wizarding world," Severus Snape sneered slightly sarcastic.

"Undoubtedly," Face nodded, completely unfazed, "shall we get the rest of our shopping done?"

ssssssssssss

The Dark Lord Voldemort appeared on the windy field with a small battalion of Death Eaters. Half of them on brooms to scout for the Order, half of them on the ground to protect their master. Wormtail briefly wondered why their master, as the greatest wizard of the age (he said so himself) needed the protection of underlings that never lived up to his expectations, but decided it was probably hazardous to his health to utter questions like that out loud.

Or even think them too loud.

"Where are they?" the abomination hissed, "just like Potter to chicken out…"

"No chickening out here, Tommy," Harry taunted, standing a good fifty feet away from them.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" For once, the Dark Lord decided not to waste time with any villains expositions or pleasantries before battle, but go for the kill.

To the immense surprise of the Death Eaters, the curse went straight through Harry Potter, who still smiled happily.

"What magic is this?" Voldemort wondered, "Wormtail. Now."

The rat changed into…well, a rat, and scurried over to Harry. After a slight nibble at his feet, Wormtail changed back.

"It is not him, my Lord. It is a …I do not quite understand." He waved his hand through Harry, showing how it went straight through him as well.

"A ghost! Harry Potter is dead!" murmurs went through the ranks of Death Eaters.

"He is not. I would have felt it," Voldemort silenced them. "POTTER! Where are you?"

"Here," Harry Potter flickered into existence next to Voldemort, who jumped and let out an undignified yelp.

"Here."

"Here."

"Here."

All over the field, Harry Potters were appearing. The Death Eaters were panicking and started to run and fire off curses at random Harry Potters, but only succeeded in taking out over a quarter of their own numbers on the ground before Voldemort managed to get them back under control.

"Come out here and fight like a man, Potter!" he screamed.

Suddenly a strange sound above them made them look up. At a very high speed, a strange contraption approached, and calls of "YEEEHAAAWWW" were heard. It was truly frightening.

The Death Eaters in the sky attempted to duck out of the way and were forced to scatter or fall from their brooms.

Several did not manage to avoid the crazy person and plummeted to the ground. One of them landed in a broken heap at Voldemorts feet. Another Death Eater on the ground was not so lucky. HIS colleague landed right on top of him.

Luckily for Voldemort, Bellatrix, while completely insane, did retain a modicum of common sense.

"Point me Harry Potter!" she yelled in the chaos that had erupted. Her wand pointed to a rock formation a little further on.

"AH! Well done, Bella."

Voldemort strode towards the rock. "Reducto!"

Harry had anticipated this and shielded in time to protect himself from the debris. "Hi Tom," he waved.

"AVADA…KWUK."

Voldemorts attempt at the curse was thwarted by one of his Death Eaters bashing a rock against his skull. Unfortunately, it took a little more effort to kill the snake-man than that, but it did give Harry time to regroup.

"Snape," Voldemort said, his voice low and threatening, "you!"

"Yes, me," Snape Apparated away before the Crucio hit him.

The aircraft kept pestering the Death Eaters in the sky, and now on the ground a similar steel construction emerged, roaring wildly. A large dark man sat inside while two others stood on top, manning tubes with fire coming out. Snape hang from the side, throwing curses at everyone he could see. Harry Potter had disappeared again, but quickly emerged to throw curses at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort panicked. The battle was going ill for him. Fending off Harry's curses and countering with his own, he motioned to his Death Eaters.

"Regroup! Regroup!"

The vehicle now found a line of shielded wizards against it, and the curses forced Snape to retreat inside. Harry ran to the vehicle and jumped in. The firesticks on the roof blasted away, but the Reducto and Bombarda curses of the Death Eaters damaged the device seriously.

Finally, it stopped moving. Just as Voldemort smiled in triumph, a Death Eater still in the sky screamed in panic.

"THEY ARE HERE! MY LORD! DUMBLEDORE IS HERE!"

The Order of the Phoenix, having Apparated in seconds before, ran onto the battlefield and now the Death Eaters found themselves stuck between the immobile but still shooting vehicle in front and the entire Order at their backs.

Harry jumped out. "Surrender now!" he called out, "and we'll have mercy."

Several Death Eaters already lowered their wands, but Voldemort was having none of it.

Then from each side, a person ran up. A bushy haired woman from the right, and a redheaded man from the left.

It was only then that Voldemort noticed that Harry Potter in front of him was not a boy. This was a grown man.

"Potter…" he hesitated. "What happened to you?"

"None of your business, Tom," Harry calmly replied. Hermione and Ron raised their wands as well.

"I will kill you. And anyone allied to you. Including that traitor!" Voldemort flashed his wand at Snape, who saw the curse coming his way and knew it would be fatal. Before he could react, however, a hand grabbed him by his collar and drug him back into the van.

"Now, didn't your momma tell you not to play with the lights?" Face grinned at him as the curse flew past and evaporated a rock a little further down.

Voldemort raised his wand again, and Harry was ready. The curses they threw were beyond anything either Death Eaters or Order members had ever seen and it was clear that Voldemort stood no chance against the obviously powerful young man.

The end came as an anticlimax to many. Harry, Ron and Hermione started casting together, Harry a split second after the others. Two curses flew towards Voldemort, straight through his shields. The third followed through the hole the other two had made.

Voldemort fell to the ground with an undignified splat.

In the silence that followed, Hannibal turned to Dumbledore and offered him a cigar.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

sssssssssssss

sssssssssssssss

"What are you going to do now?" Dumbledore asked the three.

"We aren't sure yet. Travel a bit, perhaps. Take a holiday. We do not feel particularly inclined to stay here, though undoubtedly we will visit often."

The Headmasters office was full of people who came to see the three heroes off. Seven heroes, actually, counting the A Team.

Severus Snape entered, a bag in his hand.

"Are you leaving us too, Severus?" Dumbledore asked sadly.

"I can hardly stay here," Snape replied, "I hate teaching, the wizarding world would never fully accept me again and I am rather looking forward to going with these delinquents."

Face gave him a pleased smirk.

"I am rather looking forward to the tricks I can pick up from him," Snape shrugged.

"Hey, magic is cool and all, but not for us," BA said, "but I was glad you fixed up my van real quick."

Flitwick smiled and said 'you're welcome'.

"I'm going to hang out here for a bit," Murdock announced, "take a holiday. Miss Lovegood invited me to come with her father and herself to hunt for Snorkacks, and I happen to know just the hunting ground…"

Harry grinned. "Happy hunting, Murdock. We will see you soon."

He turned to the Headmaster.

"Remember, Headmaster – if you are in trouble, and no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A Team!"

The End.


End file.
